FOOLISH SANITY
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This film may not be suitable for people under the age
of 16. Viewer Discretion is advised. This film contains themes of mental illness, suicide and sexual harassment. While there are no scenes of someone dying by suicide,
it is discussed by various characters. Please note that
the sexual harassment is a man’s hand moving up a
woman’s thigh.
Fisher Award for Exceptional Achievement
in the Creative Arts
Have questions or feedback? Email us at foolishsanity2021@gmail.com
About the Show
Foolish Sanity is a theatrical film piece that combines scenes and monologues from various classical and modern plays into the format of a comedy sketch show. These scenes are woven together through a central Fool who will demonstrate how the archetype of the Fool has existed throughout history.
Archetype of The Fool
The archetype of the Fool represents a necessary
function of theater itself; to tell truths, especially of
social injustices.
The Fool is known to:
-
Break the “4th wall” of the theatrical stage space
and speak directly to the audience -
Tell truths others neglect to hear
-
Utilize comedy as a way to connect with others
-
Hold a label of mental illness or disability, often through terms like ‘insane’, ‘mad’, or ‘crazy.’
By being labeled disabled, other characters and audience members can more easily dismiss the Fool's ideas or put them on a pedestal as the 'outsider' denying the Fool dimension and humanity. You will find that in Foolish Sanity there are instances where the Fool is unable to reach the audience directly or refrains from humor. We urge you to question whether this is of the Fool’s own volition or if it is due to the oppression placed upon them by society, perhaps not only because of their label of disability but also for being a woman in a male dominated society.
Sponsored by the Brandeis Theater Department and the Sound and Image Media Studios at Brandeis University
TIMELINE
Inspired by the shape of a Cap and Bells Fool's Hat, this timeline takes a look at history in the context of plays, society/legislation, and healthcare/treatment related to Foolish Sanity. To read the timeline up close and interact with it, check out this interactive timeline. To read through the timeline, check out this text-only timeline.
"When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained." - Mark Twain
MEET THE CAST
OUR PRODUCTION STAFF
SPECIAL THANKS
Siena DeBenedittis
Choreographer for If My Friends Could See Me
Now Prologue
Jessie Goronowitz
Composer of Feste’s Lullaby
Eileen Qiu
Violinist of Feste’s Lullaby and Music Producer
Talya Ginsberg
Pianist for If My Friends Could See Me Now Reprise
Robert Walsh
Voice actor for Robert (Proof), Dad (Fleabag),
Tesman (Hedda Gabler)
Jen Cleary
Voice actor of Hedda (Hedda Gabler),
Amy’s Thesis advisor
Adrianne Krstansky
Amy’s Thesis advisor
Stephen Gulley
Second Reader for Thesis, Provided our team with lectures and information on the history of disability rights and how society has viewed disability throughout history
Brandeis Theater Department
Staff and Faculty
Assisted our team in finding answers to needed information and obtaining costumes, props and lights.
Sound and Image Media Studios
at Brandeis
Provided film and sound equipment as well as training
on such equipment.
CREATION OF THE SHOW
A MESSAGE FROM THE THESIS MAKER
— Amy Ollove —
Hi! Thank you so much for checking out Foolish Sanity! It has been a long yet rewarding process of creativity. Let me explain the process…
Why are you interested in disability?
But, Amy, how does all this relate
to theatre?
Well, that’s a long story. First — let me tackle the question regarding my interest in mental health and disability. When I was in middle school, I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder among other mental illnesses. Despite being anxious, I was able to ‘mask’ my stress through comedic compensation. Many of my friends couldn’t even tell I was struggling because I was always so outgoing. Humor as a coping mechanism is a common characteristic of comedians who struggle with mental health as well as really anyone going through challenging times.
Despite appearing on top of every aspect of life, inside I was often struggling. Teachers didn’t always care about my legally documented academic accommodations, therapists dismissed my panic attacks as my forgetting to ‘breathe,’ and friends couldn’t relate to my feeling that the world was on my shoulders. This feeling of loneliness gave me a sort of understanding of people with disabilities. I understood that sometimes you needed to approach things from a different angle to make them accessible and inclusive. In high school, I volunteered in the Life Skills classrooms and created a program called ‘The Buddy System’ to facilitate friendships between students in special education and mainstream classrooms. In college, I became a coordinator of Waltham Group’s Brandeis Buddies (similar idea to The Buddy System), a personal care assistant for people with disabilities in the greater Boston area, and worked at a school for people with intellectual disabilities and students who are deaf and/ or blind as well.
Recently, I’ve been diagnosed with OCD and, yet again, other disabilities that have deeply and painfully affected my life. It was difficult for me to take as I questioned what a diagnosis of a mental illness really is. Why was I diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety when I was younger and now suddenly being labeled with something else? Why didn’t anyone ‘catch’ I had OCD back then? I began to question every action I made as being either a part of Amy or a part of my OCD. I’ve come to realize these self-reflecting questions are nothing I need to concern myself with but rather an extension of society’s outlook on mental health. My mental illness has been a central part in making me who I am today, just as my family, friends and experiences have also influenced my development and continued growth. It is not the label nor even being diagnosed with a disability that matters, but how society can be inclusive and supportive to every individual.
While mental illness is a ‘subgroup’ under the umbrella term of disability, there are many similar adversities all people within the disabled community face. Thus, being labeled ‘mentally ill’ since my preteens, my eyes have opened to the lack of inclusivity for people with intellectual disabilities, chronic illness, physical disabilities and for the deaf and blind communities. The world needs to change. It needs to be more accessible and it needs to be inclusive.
I was admitted to Brandeis as a Midyear. This provided me with the opportunity to spend my first year fall semester abroad in London. There, I learned all about Fools in Shakespeare and in other British plays. I started to see the connection between comedic relief and their embodiment of disability, whether that be through their appearing to have a psychiatric disorder or a
physical disability.
Next, I came to Brandeis. As a Theater major, I took all kinds of classes where I had to read a variety of plays. And, as a psychology minor, I also took classes about various psychiatric disorders. But that wasn’t enough. I was being taught through a medical lens. I wanted to learn more from the perspective of the community. So, I took classes in other departments such as Sociology of Mental Illness, Sociology of Disability, Disability Policy, and ‘Disability Culture. These classes allowed me to further connect the history of how the disabled community has been treated in Europe/US and the ways in which this treatment has been reflected in works of theater.
At this point I was connecting the dots between the disabled community and how they are reflected in theater. But the understanding of how comedy was related to the puzzle was missing. Then came along my semester at The Second City in Chicago last spring. It was there I learned more about the history of comedy; vaudeville, silent films, sitcoms, stand up, etc. I learned about many famous comedians who struggled with their mental health. I learned how to write and perform comedy, how
to walk and talk as a comic character, and how to bring
in humor during tragedy. Finally, all the puzzle pieces lined up.
Woah, woah, woah! Is your
thesis something you have been
workingon throughout your entire undergraduate career?
No, no, no! This is all to say that my thoughts about this piece have been building for a looooong time. But my thesis has been an integral part of my entire senior year. So, last semester was spent doing research and reading different plays to select different scenes to combine them into what is Foolish Sanity. With the help of my fantastic director and best friend, who I met in London I might add, we added in the character of the narrator to help weave the story together. It wasn’t until this spring that the character work, designs, and filming was done. And, well, don’t you find it brilliant?
I want to give a BIG thank you to my entire team. Some of these scenes were filmed when it was freezing, others during busy times in the semester - heck, the whole thing was filmed during a pandemic! (With Massachusetts safety and health guidelines followed, of course.) Throughout the whole process, everyone remained positive and excited at what we were creating. And - everyone continually brought their all to every aspect of the production. Some of our team I met during my very first semester at Brandeis and others I became friends with through this production. So, I’d like to think this whole process is a bit ‘full circle’ for those of us who are seniors. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for supporting Foolish Sanity.
COSTUME SKETCHES
— Marissa Small —
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"You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it. " - Robin Williams
CREATION OF THE SHOW
DIRECTOR'S NOTE
— Emily Pollack —
There were a few questions I set out to answer when Amy asked me to direct her thesis about the medium of film, the apparatus of the camera, and how to place the fool in the center of the stage when there is no stage to speak of. They were not easy questions to answer on my own, so I am very thankful I had such an amazing cast, crew, and thesis maker to help me work through them! I’ve sketched out what came about below!
What can the camera provide for the fool that they don’t get on stage?
What is the camera?
Who is the camera?
To the fool, to the other characters,
to me, to you?
Not wanting to rid the audience of the fool’s number one best quality, breaking the fourth wall, the camera must not disappear. You know you are watching a film and the fool acknowledges you. You build a friendship, a trust, that mimics what you receive on the stage. But, unlike on the stage, in which there is a preconceived notion that the fool tells the fundamental truth all the time to you through asides and direct address, the idea of the unreliable narrator works its way into the watcher’s subconscious
via the apparatus of the camera. You are forced to look
in the direction the fool guides you toward. What are
they hiding?
The other characters played by Rosie and Genevive do not notice the camera. They are playing strictly in their own worlds, sometimes obsessively so, as a stark contrast to the gravity of the fool. They are blissfully unaware of anything outside their own states of being and mind, which is fair, but also ignorant.
The characters played by Mike also seem to be disillusioned with life. Although his characters are the most able to help the fool, he rarely does, or he takes advantage of the fool for personal gain or boredom, utilizing them as a jester. He is only shown in bits and pieces in order to show his looming presence without giving him too much power, as one of the incarnations of the more modern fool character is that of the ‘hysterical woman’ as reconciled and/or combated in Hedda Gabbler, Lady in the Dark, and The Last Yankee.
As for the friend characters, played by Rachel, she is the force that could ground the fool. The fool is the audience’s liaison, so the fool rarely gets a true friend of their own. Someone they can confide in and express their desires.
In some sense, the fool must bean outsider of society in order to fulfill their role as a fool— the fundamental truth-teller. The friend character, also shown mostly through close-ups, flashbacks, and voice-over, is the fool's escape, but she is fragmented because the fool is
so rarely allowed to have her.
The characters voiced by professors Jen Cleary and Bob Walsh are completely voice-over. They, much like Rachel’s characters, appear primarily through the memory of the Narrator. They seem much more real than the other characters because of this which makes the life of the fool seem that much more real as well. Through this decision, we wanted to coax the fool out of the idea that they must only be their archetype and give them the comfort to express themselves as a person.
The fool is a beloved stage character; an essential archetype that, to me, is the epitome of performance. The fool is known for their antics and for their dialogue. They push the plot forward. They are a giver and sometimes there is no space on stage to let them take what they desire. So, what if we give the fool that space?
If we can use the language of film, relying on mood, instead of the language of theater, which relies on text; could we succeed in giving back to the fool what they have given to us time and time again?
My answer: I sure hope so!
Amy pulled a lot of different pieces from across time and space that incorporate a bunch of different feelings and iterations of the fool from the classic Feste to the modern Fleabag. Instead of trying to limit ourselves to one constant mood and altering the original text to have it fit into the camera, I thought it might be best to showcase all of those moods, relying on intuition and some semblance of dreaming to create an atmosphere that sucks the audience into the world of the fool.
I took a lot of inspiration from David Lynch productions, namely Twin Peaks, for this idea. A lot of things may not make logical sense in Twin Peaks, which is uncomfortable and strange, but you always can find comfort in the fact that you know exactly how to feel your way through the story. We looked at a lot of different filmed versions of the plays to see how they created mood and we emulated those versions to give you something familiar, but unfamiliar all at once. Our Streetcar Named Desire scenes will hopefully remind you of the classic film, but it will also get under your skin through the performance of mimicry. Utilizing genre tropes as well, like the exaggeration of horror through shadows in silent film, the showstopping and glittery dance numbers found in musical movies, as well as the nostalgia-laden, sentimentality of memory/flashback sequences in indie darlings, we hope to achieve the same uncanny effect. By embracing the idea of a multitude of moods, we hope that you get a sense of who the fool is beyond the bells and whistles, beyond the archetype.
How do we craft the story and the
image of this mosaic of plays so that
the audience relates to the fool and not
the straight man?
When you have a cast of fools, you need the main character to be the straight man for the joke to land with the audience. This is one of the golden rules in comedy. When you have a Belushi, you need an Aykroyd. This often gives the audience relief, as the straight man provides the counterbalance to the fool’s antics and energy. They make sure the joke lands. They provide the relatability and authenticity and space that makes something truly funny. This is partly why we created the original character of The Narrator.
But that still leaves us wondering: how exhausting must it be to be the fool 24/7? To be expected to perform so much? To provide the energy that not only propels the other characters forward in the plot, but that keeps the audience entertained? I wanted the audience to experience this exhaustion, so we often get very close and personal to the fool as well as introduce some strange angles and shots to always shake up your expectations. Hopefully, this encourages you to get involved and question your role as an observer! We, as audience members, demand just as much of the fool as the other characters do. When will you question the fool and when will you follow them?
Usually, at this point, I would say “sit back and enjoy
the show,” but perhaps it might be better if you don’t
get too comfy. :)
FOOLING WITH COMEDY AND DISABILITY
Comedy is a great way to break down social barriers. Notice how these stand up routines and sketches use comedy to provide commentary on living with a disability. Click on the underlined titles for linked content!
The Social Model of Disability as
told through animation:
An animation that illustrates the social model of disability.
Section 504 Sit In as told by Drunk Humor:
A Drunk History episode covering the passing of the ADA. Ali Stroker plays disability activist Judith Heumann.
Comedians Discuss Humor and
Mental Health:
“Developed in partnership with Funny Or Die, Laughing Matters, is a 30-minute documentary that brings comedians together for an honest look and real conversations about comedy + mental health because when the cost of bringing others joy is your own joy...the cost is too high.”
It’s the Best Moment in History for
Anxious People:
Stand up comic Aparna Nancherla discusses
medication and how the current world was made
for someone with anxiety.
Artist: Sow.Ay
Through sketch comedy, Bamford describes her time at the psych ward. She has been diagnosed with Bipolar II Disorder and OCD and is very open in all of her comedy about her struggles with mental health.
Maria Bamford — Psych Ward, Cont.
Stand up comic, Bamford, talks about her time at a psych ward and her life with mental illness.
Stand up comic Brian Regan describes being diagnosed with OCD and how he manages it.
“Shouldn’t Happy People Be Medicated”
Stand up comic Drew Michael describes having depression and how depressed people are just realistic about the world.
Stand up comic Gary Gulman describes being medicated for mental health.
Stand-up Comic, Hannah Gadsby, describes having Autism:
Gadsby hilariously describes a childhood memory and how that was a sign she has Autism.
Pete Davidson on having Borderline Personality Disorder:
SNL member, Pete Davidson describes his new diagnosis and how he experiences depression.
When Your Therapist ‘Ghosts’ You:
Tik Tok user @swagatronforever talks about her therapist ghosting her, after telling her she has Borderline Personality Disorder.
Black Girls Don’t Get to Be Depressed:
Comic essayist, Samantha Irby, writes about her journey to therapy and coming to terms with acknowledging
her feelings
Artist: WHAM-MD
A Deaf Woman Guesses What Her Sister is Saying:
Tik Tok user @zerotothree spreads awareness of what it is like to access the world as a deaf person. Jessica makes light of how many hearing people yell when they find out she is deaf as if that will magically make her hearing.
Comedian, Will Marfori, talks about what perks he gets by being disabled.
Tik Tok user @sadwheatbread models the back brace she wears for scoliosis
Things that I Consider Ableist:
Tik Tok user @notlewy shares everyday experiences that he considers ableist as a person with a disability.
From the Comic: dizABLED by John and Claire Lytle
RESOURCES FOR HELP ON
MENTAL HEALTH/DISABILITY
Click on the underlined titles for linked content!
Resources on Ableist Language:
Here are some terms that can be considered harmful to the disabled community or are considered ableist.
Why is Ablelist Language Harmful
Person first vs. identity first language
At Brandeis University:
Student Accessibility Support
SAS supports students with disabilities at Brandeis receive academic and housing accommodations and navigate college life. Check out the Student Accessibility Support website.
SAS also provides SAS fellows — fellow students with disabilities who are available for support. Check out the SAS fellows website.
The Disabled Students’ Network
DSN is a brand new student led program — designed for students with disabilities at Brandeis to build community, share their experiences and cultivate disability pride and culture. Like the Disabled Students' Network Facebook page for upcoming events.
The Lurie Institute for Disability Policy
The Lurie Institute for Disability Policy at Brandeis University’s Heller School leads research that helps shape policies, programs and practices which improve the lives of people with disabilities across the lifespan. They often hold events to bring more awareness to Disability Life.
BCC offers therapy on campus.
The Ombuds are a confidential university resource to listen and refer callers.
Anonymous and confidential campus hotline (number below) responding to rape, sexual assault, LGBTQ+ issues, medical concerns, domestic violence, eating disorders, suicide, childhood sexual assault, campus
and legal procedures, and other topics.
In Massachusetts:
Massachusetts Department of Mental Health
The DMH provides access to mental health services
and support and runs an emergency/crisis hotline (number below).
Helplines (USA):
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: 1-800-662-4357 (24/7)
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline:
1-800-273-8255 (24/7)
6Talk (Brandeis Hotline): (781) 736-8255
(10pm - 2am, 7 days a week)
Massachusetts Department of Mental Health:
1 (877) 382-1609 (24/7)
At the National / International Level:
Promotes mental health through support groups
and webinars.
SAMHSA Treatment Services Locator
Search tool for local treatment facilities.
Mental Health America provides information about mental health and illness and seeking treatment.
HelpGuide is an online informational resource to learn more about mental illnesses including symptoms, subtopics, and treatment options.
“MindFreedom International is a nonprofit organization that unites sponsor and affiliate grassroots groups with thousands of individual members to win human rights and alternatives for people labeled with psychiatric disabilities.” It was started by Mad Pride activists.
Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance
DBSA provides education, told, peer support, and stories to help those living with depression or bipolar disorder.
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
Connects people with support groups and therapists and maintains a suicide hotline (see hotline).
“When humor goes — there goes civilization.” - Erma Bombeck
